What marketers say about greenwashing may help you not get fooled

Arrowhead's Eco-Shape water bottle, a frequent target for the anti-greenwash crowd.
arrowheadwater.com

So I spent Friday at a "Greenwashing Forum" sponsored by the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. I was a bit out of my element -- the only reporter among many marketing, advertising and consulting types.

I learned more than I had expected to, both about what marketers mean when they talk about greenwashing (turns out, good marketers don't like being greenwashed, either), as well as the need for consumers to be more on guard than ever for false and misleading claims.

When asked what his biggest "take-away" was from the forum, Jon Coifman, a former national media director for the National Resources Defense Council who is now vice president for environment practice at global public relations firm Waggener Edstrom, had two words: "Buyer beware."

When it was my turn to talk, I noted that, for many people I talk to in sustainability circles, trying to be "green" or to live more sustainably involves trying to buy less -- not just buy more green stuff. Anybody who's selling anything you don't really need (like food or shelter) starts off at a disadvantage with folks who consider less consumption to be the best path to green.

That being said, most of us end up in a supermarket or other house of commerce several times a week. Here's a list of interesting and/or surprising things I heard at the forum, worth passing along to anyone trying to make sense of "green" claims in the marketplace:

What is greenwashing: As defined by UO advertising professors Deborah Morrison and Kim Sheehan, greenwashing is "when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be "green" through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact."

How the government fights greenwashing, or doesn't: Charles Harwood, regional director for the Federal Trade Commission in Seattle, explained to the forum that the FTC mainly relies on complaints from consumers and competitors. (The FTC's green site explains how to complain.) "Law enforcement can be there, but without public support it's a lot harder to do." How does the FTC determine if an ad is false or misleading? "Deception in the advertising world is measured by consumer perception. If consumers take away an impression that can't be substantiated, than that is deceptive."

The FTC is currently revising its Green Guides, a set of guidelines for marketers, but the agency has not brought enforcement actions against deceptive green claims for several years, he said.

Words matter, and annoy: Sheehan, from the UO, helped create the Greenwashing Index and said consumer reactions to that ad-ranking Web site shows that after two years of green messages from marketers and the media, consumers "hate the word 'green.'" They also hate eco- and Earth- anything. Same goes for images of trees, flowers, and childlike renderings in green-themed ads.

At the same time, "consumers are willing to cut marketers some slack" if they're transparent about the challenges of going green in a particular industry. Chevy's "gas-friendly to gas-free" campaign, for example, is perhaps not so transparent.

Don't leave it to the eco-labels: Linda Chipperfield, with Green Seal, said there are more than 350 "eco-labels" used in the United States (corrected: an earlier version said "worldwide") -- seals, labels and certificates that claim a certain product has met an environmental standard. The result: Savvy consumers now must scrutinize the certifiers, not just the products they certify. The labels that hold up well to such scrutiny include hers, she said, as well as Energy Star, Forest Stewardship Council and USDA Organic. Nobody's perfect, but those are better than most, was the impression I got. And there's often no label to scrutinize, much less rely on: "There's not a symbol for every kind of product you're going to buy."

That said, Americans are still buying it, survey shows: A telephone survey last month, commissioned by EnviroMedia Social Marketing and Green Seal, concluded that four out of five people say they are still buying green products and services today --which sometimes cost more-- even in the midst of a recession. Check out the full release here.

If you've read this far, you deserve a laugh: Check out this clip from The Colbert Report, shown during the forum. It's called "Prescott Oil Loves the Earth."

My favorite line: "The more gas you buy, the more solved the problem will be."

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